I Finally Bought An Electric Car – My Chevy Bolt EV

I am a contrarian. For a very long time I have wanted an electric vehicle (EV) just because they are different from the standard internal combustion engine. In fact, my DIY fantasy car is still a classic VW Beetle that I convert to electric. The main thing holding me back from buying one has always been price. I had an older Toyota Highlander that I literally drove until it just wouldn’t go any more (230,000 miles!) Until that died, I couldn’t justify getting a new vehicle of any kind.

My primary concerns for a new car were, price, range, and then everything else. Any electric car option had to be at least as cheap as a comparable ICE vehicle. I had been eying used Nissan Leafs for a while. The prices were good, but their very limited range would make one strictly a town car. I was also concerned about the battery longevity with an air cooled battery pack.

When my Highlander finally died and I started actively looking for a new car, the Chevy Bolt started popping up in all my searches. I did some research and liked what I learned. And the prices were in the zone.

Price

Used Chevy Bolts are regularly showing up at a local used car dealer for $13,000-$17,000 depending on the year and mileage. The Chevy Bolt is a low-end EV that has had a bit of a tarnished record. GM has issued three vehicle recalls for the Bolt over the high voltage battery. There have been 16 battery charging related fires between 2017 and 2022. As a result, GM ended up buying back lots of Bolt EVs. The problem was traced back to manufacturing defects in the battery pack. After performing warranty repair work, these cars were placed back on the market with a ‘branded’ title (also known as a lemon title.)

Some Bolts received new battery packs and all of them had software installed that restricted charging to 80% for 6000 miles while the system monitors the performance of the battery pack for issues. If no abnormalities are detected in the battery pack during this 6000 mile period, access to the full capacity of the battery pack is restored automatically.

I read a lot about the charge fire issues (18 cars out of 25,000 sold – .07%) and the solution put in place and decided I was willing to take a chance on a Bolt. The car has an 8 year/100,000 mile warranty on the battery (3 1/2 years and 94,100 miles left at the time of purchase) and a 12 month/12,000 mile warranty on the factory repair work.

Taking a chance on the Chevy Bolt means I got a lot of car for very little money – plus it qualified for the Federal used EV tax credit which knocked $4000 off the price and was applied immediately to my down payment!

Range

The Chevy Bolt has fit into my lifestyle perfectly so far.

The main use for my car is commuting to work. My round trip to work is less than 20 miles. I also make frequent after school pickups adding about 15 more miles to my average and about 16 miles round trip to go to the gym 3 days a week. My maximum daily use tops out around 50 miles. So, I don’t need a car with tons of range. The Nissan Leaf was a contender, but even restricted to 80% charge, the Bolt comes out way ahead on range. I get well over 200 miles of range around town (160 miles in the winter months) and that will jump past 250 once the limit software expires. Plus, the Bolt’s battery pack has active thermal management which means better fast charging speeds and better protection against battery degradation. The reality is, I won’t charge past 80% very often even after the limits are lifted because it is better for battery life.

The original Bolt had a 60 kWh battery, but a chemistry change to the batteries in the 2020 model bumped it up to 66 kWh. That means an overall EPA range of 259 miles. That is way more than I need for daily driving and enough to make the car useful for road trips too.

Recent data on battery pack longevity suggests that most EVs lose about 1.8% capacity per year. At that rate I’ll still have over 200 miles of range in 10 years.

Everything Else

Beyond price and range, the Chevy Bolt is a solid little car. The overall build quality is good. The interior is comfortable and I like the looks of the car as well. The car handles very well and has excellent acceleration. The layout of the controls is very logical with knobs and buttons for important functions. There is also a surprising amount of storage room in the back.

For the first two months of ownership I was using a level 1 charger at the house (basically a cord plugged into a regular wall outlet) and was able to fully recharge the battery overnight. I repurposed an unused electric dryer outlet in my carport to get level 2 charging at home. I only needed to invest about $200 in electrical supplies to move the outlet to a more convenient location. The EVSE cable that came with the car supports level 1 and level 2 charging, so I did not have to upgrade my charger.

Our local power company also gives us a special rate discount for charging overnight. At normal prices it costs a little over $8 to fully charge the battery at home from 0%-100%. It’s even cheaper using the EV overnight rate – closer to $6.00. Now that I have level 2 charging I can restrict my charging to off-peak hours and still wake up every morning to a fully charged car.

The Chevy Bolt EV Is Not Perfect

The Chevy Bolt is a very nice car, but it isn’t perfect. The infotainment system could interface better with my phone, but it’s only okay (I have low expectations for ‘smart’ features.) I also wish GM would give me the basic ability to connect to the car through the GM phone app without have to pay a monthly OnStar subscription (when I’m home the car connects to my WIFI – I should at least be able to talk to the car remotely then!!!) I can turn on the car with the key fob to pre-condition the interior, but it has to be in range and uses whatever heating and cooling settings were active when I turned it off. I have to remember to change the settings before I get out of the car.

The one thing I really wish the Bolt did better is DC Charging. The overall range of this car is not bad considering the price. But, they cut corners on the charging system. When you plug into a DC fast charger, the maximum rate of charge is 55 kW. Not bad in 2017, but in 2024 most charging stations provide between 150-350 kW. It’s a limit I can deal with since this car is mostly for commuting and charges overnight, but this car would be nearly perfect for me if it could charge at 150 kW or better. It takes about an hour to go from 10% – 80% in ideal conditions.

Traveling In A Chevy Bolt EV

My Bolt EV was never intended to be a road trip car, but I still wanted to see what it was like to travel in it. I have taken 2 round trips that were 380 miles each way. One trip was over a warm Labor Day weekend and the other was over a very cold Thanksgiving weekend.

The experience of traveling in an EV is impacted by the range of your vehicle, the time it takes to charge, and also the availability and experience at the charging stations.

One big difference between planning an EV trip and planning a trip with a gas vehicle is the need to map out your charging stops. DC Fast chargers are a lot more numerous than in the recent past, but nowhere near as common as gas stations. So, you’ve got to plan out your stops so you don’t find yourself stranded. As a certified ‘old dude’ this reminds me of trip planning back in the 1970s when I was a kid. My parents used to order Triptik maps of our planned trip from AAA and we would plan out trips around the locations of gas stations and rest stops. Some trips had more options than others.

It is wise to download apps for all the major charging companies to your phone and setup accounts with each one in advance. The charging process is more convenient this way and the charger coverage for each company varies enough that you will need to use more than one network on a trip. Most chargers have card readers on them, but when you use the app to start the charge session everything is smoother and you can monitor the session from your phone when you are away from the car.

The first trip required 2 charging stops and I spent about 1 hour and 40 minutes plugged in. I was able to charge at locations that were close to the highway and had very good amenities available. I arrived at my destination with about 30 miles of range left on the battery. Overall, I was very pleased with the performance of the car on this trip.

The second trip was a very different experience. The temperatures were well below freezing and the combination of a colder battery pack and the need to use the heater to warm the cabin knocked my range down by about 25%. This meant that I couldn’t reach my second charging stop without making a top-up charge about half way and I couldn’t reach my final destination from my second stop without another top-up charge as well.

The area where I made my first top-up charge has pretty poor DC Fast Charger coverage along the route. The best spot for me to stop had 2 chargers out of service and cars charging on the remaining 2 working chargers. I ended up traveling 7 miles out of my way to reach another charging station that was a little hard to find. It was tucked away in a shopping center parking deck on Black Friday. Getting too and from the charger added nearly an hour to the trip and the extra charging stops themselves added about another hour to the total. The good news was my charging speeds didn’t suffer from the cold. Most of my charging sessions averaged out to speeds of between 45-51 kW.

The return trip was much smoother. I still needed the top-up sessions, but didn’t waste time hunting for chargers.

Other than the loss of range, the car performed great in the winter weather. But, the Bolt’s 55 kW charging limit and my current inability to use the last 20% of the battery makes it a poor choice for weekend trips.

Am I Happy with My Chevy Bolt EV?

Very short answer, yes I love my little Bolt EV. I makes me happy.

I find this EV car legitimately fun to drive. Never having to stop for gas is already a huge bonus and I love the massively reduced maintenance schedule. I need to rotate the tires and check the brakes and coolant levels every 7,500 mles. At 15,000 miles I also need to change the wiper blades. At 22,500 miles I will need a new cabin air filter. Some time in the first 8-10 years I’ll also need to replace the 12 volt battery. No spark plugs, oil filters, alternators, vacuum hoses, serpentine belts, O2 sensors, fuel injectors, and 100 other things I’ve had to replace on other cars.

This little car could fail on me in some sort of epic way. But, I’ve still got 4 years/93,000 miles left on the battery warranty. I think I’ll get my money’s worth out of this car. If anything changes I’ll post an update.